Abstract/Summary

This draft report describes the completed Work Package 1 and 2 tasks of the Defra
commissioned Science and Research Project SP1008 - Establishing data on normal/background
levels of soil contamination in England. Work Package 1 (WP1) has investigated the available
soil data sets that can be used to determine the Normal Background Concentrations (NBCs) for
contaminants in soils from England. A database of available data set information has been
created investigating the sample coverage, the sampling strategy and methods, the laboratory
procedures, and the robustness, format and availability of the data. Key data sets are the British
Geological Survey’s G-BASE topsoils for urban and rural areas and the National Soil Inventory
(XRFS reanalysed) data which, although at a reduced sampling density compared to G-BASE, has
complete coverage for both England and Wales. Supplementary minor data sets are also
included in the Project’s extensive bibliographic database. There are also large data sets
available that specifically target a particular land use or activity, i.e. not systematically
collected, e.g. the BGS Mineral Reconnaissance Programme (MRP) soils. Such data will not be
used to estimate NBCs as they will cause a substantial bias in the determinations.
This data and information gathering phase will underpin subsequent work packages of this
project. Work Package 1 has also addressed some key questions such as, “what are the priority
contaminants?” and “what is meant by a normal background concentration?”